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Network: Opportunities

LUX Scotland - BBC Introducing: Now & Next

15 November, 2018

BBC Introducing: Now & Next is a talent development scheme that will nurture and showcase emerging creative voices, as well as offer established artists a chance to try something new through a series of collaborative artists’ film commissions.

Expanding on current BBC initiatives that support new talent, such as BBC Introducing, BBC Writersroom and The Social, BBC Introducing: Now & Next aims to support Scotland-based artists from a wide range of disciplines (visual arts, moving image, dance, spoken word, theatre) to realise their ideas in high-quality short artists’ films.

Over the course of one year, BBC Introducing: Now & Next, in partnership with Creative Scotland and LUX Scotland, will commission 20 new pieces of work.

These film commissions will be created by artists working in collaboration. If you’re a filmmaker you should include a key collaborator in your proposal, preferably one from a different artistic practice to you (dance, theatre, animation, spoken word, etc). If you are an artist with no filmmaking experience, you would need to collaborate with a filmmaker.

The films will be published by the BBC on television or digital platforms such as BBC iPlayer, BBC Scotland’s social channels and BBC websites (dependent upon the work and the specific brief). LUX Scotland will be delivering the project on behalf of BBC Scotland and Creative Scotland, and will offer a package of support to the successful artists.

LUX Scotland will issue three commissioning calls over 12 months. These calls are open to all creative practitioners from a range of backgrounds and disciplines, currently living in Scotland.

Each call/brief will be focused around a particular publication platform and/or a theme. The first call will be around BBC arts platform Loop. Here is the first brief with an application deadline of Sunday 16 December 2018.

What is Loop?
Loop is a Scottish digital arts strand which publishes short social media videos about the arts on BBC Scotland’s Facebook and Twitter channels as well as longer films on bbc.co.uk, YouTube and BBC iPlayer.

The Brief
We are seeking proposals for fresh, innovative short films for Loop from creative voices in Scotland that reflect the experience of living in modern Scotland. We will commission films that demonstrate the breadth of possibility offered by the form of film, whether that be through experimentation with sound and image, structure, narrative and storytelling, animation, performance or any other means. The films should also aim to be accessible to a wide audience, so should also have a clear, relatable idea or concept at its heart. We are looking for you to push the boundaries on what constitutes art and make Scotland engage with a new way of seeing itself.

These film commissions should be created by artists working in collaboration. If you are an artist filmmaker, you should include a key collaborator in your pitch, preferably one from a different artistic practice to you (dance, theatre, animation, spoken word, etc). If you are an artist from another discipline with no filmmaking experience, you will need to collaborate with a filmmaker.

We welcome proposals from artists of all backgrounds, including those from minority ethnic groups, those who consider themselves to be disabled and those who are currently underrepresented in media and the visual arts.

Film Duration and Format
The film should last between 90 seconds and 5 minutes. Final delivery will require both a 16×9 and 1:1 (square) version.

Accessibility
We would ask that you consider how to make your film accessible to as wide an audience as possible. You can read more here.

Budget
You will be asked to submit a rough budget outlining all anticipated costs for your proposed project, which should include your and your collaborator’s fees, copyright fees, equipment hire, research costs and post-production costs. We will assign a budget, based upon the proposal, to cover all fees and production costs up to £5,000.

Who is the audience for Loop?
The typical audience for Loop is a broad 25–45 years audience residing in Scotland. They are inquisitive, and love shareable content they can engage with and talk about. They are not a typical arts audience and so your proposal should consider how you will engage them: strong ideas, striking visuals, insights into the human condition and humour are likely to help your proposal. It’s worth noting that the modern digital audience has a relatively short attention span due to the sheer volume of content they are exposed to. Some say you have two seconds to capture their attention and keep them watching.

There is strong evidence to suggest that videos aimed at social media platforms perform better with on screen subtitles since 80% or more users watch without headphones. Also the BBC have found that 1:1 ratio (square-shaped) shot videos perform better as the audience can watch these on their mobile devices without having to rotate the phone into landscape mode.

Application Deadline for Brief One: Sunday 16 December 2018, midnight

Completed Work Deadline for Brief One: Friday 12 April 2019

Project Duration: the process from commissioning to delivery of the completed film is approximately 12 weeks

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